Saturday, February 27, 2016

School science I: sunrise





If you want to understand a sunrise in a school science way, you say "the Earth spins" even as your soul feels the sun ascend with hope and fierceness over the stable ground under your feet.

You know the Earth spins, but you do not believe it.
We teach children to deny what they believe every day.
We are preparing them for life in our culture.
(We call this college and career readiness.)


If you want to understand a sunrise, then, you need to sit still, very still, and accept, in a deep, and yes, reverent way, that the sun is your reference point, and it is, at least for the moment. The earth will slip under and to the right ever so slowly, and you will feel, literally, the earth move.

Then you know the earth does spin, feel it in your bones even.
Teach a child this, and she will have a different relationship with the ground beneath her feet.
We will be preparing her for a place in a universe larger than the one held captive in words and images.
(We call this science.)


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